Intestinal Absorption of Vitamin A in the Normal Rat

Abstract

Vitamin A, in the form of the naturally occurring esters of fish liver oil, has been administered to post absorptive rats and the per cent of free alcohol in the lumen and in the gut wall determined at varying time intervals using the technique of analytical distillation. Of the total vitamin A recovered, it was found that the per cent of alcohol increased from 4.36 at 80 minutes to 16.20 at 400 minutes while the alcohol in the gut wall increased from 59.2% at 220 minutes to 81.9% at 400 minutes. These data indicate that vitamin A esters behave as do other esters of the fatty acids in the intestinal tract in that they are hydrolyzed by the enzymes present there and, further, that during the height of absorption, the vitamin exists in the gut wall chiefly as the alcohol.